PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Engineers discover nanoscale balancing act that mirrors forces at work in living systems

Engineers discover nanoscale balancing act that mirrors forces at work in living systems
2011-08-25
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A delicate balance of atomic forces can be exploited to make nanoparticle superclusters that are uniform in size---an attribute that's important for many nanotech applications but hard to accomplish, University of Michigan researchers say.

The same type of forces are at work bringing the building blocks of viruses together, and the inorganic supercluster structures in this research are in many ways similar to viruses.

U-M chemical engineering professors Nicholas Kotov and Sharon Glotzer led the research. The findings are newly published online in Nature Nanotechnology.

In another instance of forces behaving in unexpected ways at the nanoscale, they discovered that if you start with small nanoscale building blocks that are varied enough in size, the electrostatic repulsion force and van der Waals attraction force will balance each other and limit the growth of the clusters. This equilibrium enables the formation of clusters that are uniform in size.

"The breakthrough here is that we've discovered a generic mechanism that causes these nanoparticles to assemble into near perfect structures," Glotzer said. "The physics that we see is not special to this system, and could be exploited with other materials. Now that we know how it works, we can design new building blocks that will assemble the same way."

The inorganic superclusters---technically called "supraparticles"---that the researchers created out of red, powdery cadmium selenide are not artificial viruses. But they do share many attributes with the simplest forms of life, including size, shape, core-shell structure and the abilities to both assemble and dissemble, Kotov said.

"Having these functionalities in totally inorganic system is quite remarkable," Kotov said. "There is the potential to combine them with the beneficial properties of inorganic materials such as environmental resilience, light adsorption and electrical conductivity."

Zhiyong Tang, a collaborating professor at the National Center of Nanoscience and Technology in China, said, "It is also very impressive that such supraparticles can be further used as the building blocks to fabricate three-dimensional ordered assemblies. This secondary self-assembly behavior provides a feasible way to obtain large-scale nanostructures that are important for practical application."

Kotov is currently working on "breeding" these supraparticles to produce synthetic fuels from carbon dioxide. The work also has applications in drug delivery and solar cell research and it could dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing large quantities of supraparticles.

"By replicating the self-assembly processes that allow living organisms to grow and heal, we can simplify the production of many useful nanostructured systems from semiconductors and metals so much so that they can be made in any high school laboratory," Kotov said.



INFORMATION:

This research is funded by the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.

For more information:
Nicholas Kotov: http://che.engin.umich.edu/people/kotov.html
Sharon Glotzer: http://che.engin.umich.edu/people/glotzer.html
Zhiyong Tang: http://sourcedb.cas.cn/sourcedb_nanoctr_cas/yw/rc/200906/t20090602_252684.html

EDITORS: Images are available at: http://ns.umich.edu/index.html?Releases/2011/Aug11/superclusters


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Engineers discover nanoscale balancing act that mirrors forces at work in living systems

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Those with Cardiovascular Disease May Receive Compassionate Allowance

2011-08-25
Applying for and receiving Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits can take time. For those with serious, life threatening conditions, a delay can mean the difference between life and death. For this reason, the Social Security Administration (SSA) offers compassionate allowances, which allow the agency to target obviously disabled individuals for expedited benefits consideration based on readily available medical information. The SSA recently held a series of public hearings to determine the necessity of adding cardiovascular disease to its list of compassionate allowance ...

Man Receives Complete Face Transplant After Construction Accident

2011-08-25
In March, a team of surgeons at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital announced the results of the amazing case of Dallas Wiens, a construction worker from Fort Worth, Texas, who received the most complete face transplant in the United States to date. The 25-year-od construction worker suffered extreme injures from severe burns to his head, when the boom lift he was operating struck a power line. The horrific construction site accident left him in a coma for three months. In the following two and a half years, he underwent 22 surgeries. The damage to his face was ...

House dust mite test on wheezy toddlers predicts asthma in teen years

2011-08-25
Wheezy toddlers who have a sensitivity to house dust mites are more at risk of developing asthma by the age of 12, a University of Melbourne led study has shown. Children aged one – two years with a family history of allergy, who had a positive skin prick test to house dust mites, had a higher risk of developing asthma later in life. Results showed 75 per cent of these children had asthma at aged 12 compared to 36 per cent of children without a positive skin prick test. Lead author Dr Caroline Lodge from the University of Melbourne's School of Population Health said ...

Storing vertebrates in the cloud

Storing vertebrates in the cloud
2011-08-25
What Google is attempting for books, the University of California, Berkeley, plans to do for the world's vertebrate specimens: store them in "the cloud." Online storage of information from vertebrate collections at the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, National Museum of Natural History in Paris, UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and from hundreds of other animal collections around the world – or at least, all collections that include animals with backbones – will make them readily available to academic researchers and citizen ...

Outmoded Peer Review System Spells Trouble for Radiology

2011-08-25
Most industries now examine systems, rather than individuals, for ways to improve performance. However, in a June 2011 article in Radiology, researchers reported that the American College of Radiology continues to rely on the outdated practice of peer review, a procedure that could put patients at risk for inadequate or unnecessary treatment and increase the risk of medical malpractice errors. The Downsides of Peer Review Programs In radiology's peer review system, radiologists examine peer reports for reading errors or misdiagnosis. Cincinnati radiologist David B. ...

Recent Change to Florida's Homestead Law Benefits Surviving Spouses

2011-08-25
Florida has a strong legal history of protection of home ownership via tax policy, probate laws and debtor's rights. The foundation of this is the Florida Constitution, which protects homeowners from the forced sale of or lien encumbrances on homestead property by creditors, except for three specific reasons: - Unpaid homestead property taxes and assessments - Mortgages for the purchase, improvement or repair of the homestead - Liens for maintenance, repairs or improvements to the homestead A recent change to one aspect of Florida's homestead law affects a surviving ...

Building a better antipsychotic drug by treating schizophrenia's cause

2011-08-25
PITTSBURGH—The classic symptoms of schizophrenia – paranoia, hallucinations, the inability to function socially—can be managed with antipsychotic drugs. But exactly how these drugs work has long been a mystery. Now, researchers at Pitt have discovered that antipsychotic drugs work akin to a Rube Goldberg machine— that is, they suppress something that in turn suppresses the bad effects of schizophrenia, but not the exact cause itself. In a paper published in this week's Journal of Neuroscience, they say that pinpointing what's actually causing the problem could lead to ...

No need to nag: study finds doctors' nutrition advice hits home early

2011-08-25
TORONTO, Ont., Aug 23, 2011— Hearing dietary advice twice is enough for patients to get the significant benefits of lower cholesterol, according to a new study led by doctors at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto. "We're seeing more and more people want to take their health into their own hands," said Dr. David Jenkins, the lead author of the study and director of the hospital's Risk Factor Modification Centre. Dr. Jenkins is also Canada's Research Chair in Nutrition and Metabolism at U of T's Department of Nutritional Sciences. Jenkins and his team ...

Construction Industry Has Most Traumatic Brain Injuries

2011-08-25
It may come as no surprise to construction workers, but a new study indicates that the construction industry has the highest number of traumatic brain injuries of all sectors of the U.S. workforce. For a variety of work-related injuries, construction workers may be able to make claims for workers' compensation benefits. The study, The Epidemiology of Fatal Occupational Traumatic Brain Injury in the U.S., analyzed data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injury and the Current Population Survey, and it was performed by investigators from the National Institute for Occupational ...

Stay in ICU means fewer patients likely to renew prescriptions after discharge

2011-08-25
TORONTO, Ont., Aug. 23, 2011—Patients often do not renew prescriptions for their chronic diseases after they are released from hospital. The number is even lower if the patient spent time in an intensive care unit, according to a new study by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Studies. "If you don't continue your medication after hospital, that can have consequences, such as hospital readmissions, visits to the emergency department and, in rare cases, death," said Dr. Chaim Bell, the lead researcher. Dr. Bell examined ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Engineers discover nanoscale balancing act that mirrors forces at work in living systems